Expleo expands advisory offerings with addition of UMS Consulting

Expleo, a €1 billion global technology and consulting company, has strengthened its advisory offerings with the acquisition of UMS Consulting, a German player with 60 employees.

The deal sees UMS Consulting become part of Expleo’s consulting division, and continue to operate as an autonomous brand. The firm will work closely together with other consulting affiliates, including UK-based Moorhouse (acquired in 2018) and US-based Trissential (acquired in 2015).

“This acquisition further strengthens our consulting offer. The capabilities, customer portfolios and geographic footprints of our two organisations are a strong complement to one another which we believe will support our growth and provide greater value to our customers worldwide,” said Damien Lasou, a leader at Expleo.

Founded in 1984, UMS Consulting brings a track record of thousands of projects delivered in Germany and beyond, with a focus on strategy execution, leadership, process optimisation, innovation, and digitalisation. The Frankfurt-headquartered firm specialises in lean and agile transformations.

UMS Consulting works across sectors, including in banking, automotive, transportation, energy & utilities, pharma & life sciences, and chemicals.

Over the past years, the German consultancy worked together with Expleo on several joint engagements, and building on this cooperation, “joining them was a natural next step for us,” said Stephan Lunau, Managing Director at UMS Consulting.

Now part of a 15,000-strong group with deep capabilities in technology and software engineering, UMS Consulting will be able to expand its digital suite of offerings. Lunau: “By becoming part of Expleo, our customers will benefit from the best-in-class digital and engineering capabilities Expleo offers.”

Expleo was incepted in 2019 when Assystem Technologies and all its affiliates, including SQS, rebranded as Expleo (the term Expleo refers to the Latin verb explere, which means to complete and to satisfy). The company is backed by French private equity investor Ardian, which also has a controlling stake in supply chain and operations consultancy Argon & Co.

In other recent deals in Germany’s consulting scene, niche player Schickler joined the Highberg Group, PwC closed two acquisitions (eilersconsulting and ID-Consult), and consultants matchmaker Comatch joined freelancer marketplace Malt.